Yes. We admit it. We were surprised. Not so much by what was said, but by the impact of a $150 million investment in a company that already has over $1 billion in cash. We guess it doesn’t always matter what’s given as much as who gives it. We may not know everything, but a roughly 33% jump in the value of Apple’s market value following the Microsoft announcement indicates the company had one heck of an image problem on Wall Street. In his usually unique way, Steve Jobs found an offbeat way to spell r-e-l-i-e-f. For more of “plop-plop-fizz-fizz”on the Boston show, please read Michael Tsai’s Personal Computing Paradigm inside this issue.
What Can We Do?
There are many people in the Mac community who have responded with a bit of indignation to Steve Job’s pronouncements at Mac World Expo. There are some who claim his involvement at Apple leaves them with a bit of indigestion. We find some of this “spicy” talk just a little too “acidic” for our tastes. Please feel free to “pepper” us with your comments. Interesting letters may be published in next month’s issue. For a more “seasoned” view on the matter, please read Apples Kids & Attitude inside this issue.
We Admit It...
We think it’s elegant. We also appreciate your letters. Mac OS 8 is already the most successful software introduction in the history of the Macintosh and it continues to set new sales records each day! The editors of ATPM follow Apple’s tribulations on a daily basis. We do this because we like to provide you, our loyal readers, with a light monthly “snapshot” of events in Mac computing. We remain mindful that not everyone has the opportunity to immerse themselves in all things Macintosh like we do.
With this in mind, we’re very pleased to recommend Mac OS 8 to our readers. We believe that anyone with a 68040 or PowerPC Mac should seriously consider upgrading to the latest OS. Not only is the new user interface kind of cool, it’s much, much more stable than System 7.x. If you’re not among the first million plus buyers of OS 8, we think you should be among the second million or the third million and so on. In other words “try it...you’ll like it.”
Not A Trivial Matter
Most members of the civilized world by now are are aware of Steve Job’s keynote address at Mac World Expo. Some people are calling it the most important turning point in Apple’s history since the introduction of the Macintosh! But for those of us at ATPM worldwide headquarters, the highlight of the Boston show is that our Webzinger, Evan Trent won a PowerTower 166, LinoColor Jade scanner, and Macromedia Freehand Studio at Power Computing’s “This is not Jeopardy” trivia game.
Unfortunately, Evan sheepishly returned to his ATPM duties without saying a word to his fellow staffers. We learned of his success from another party. Not only did this deny us an opportunity to congratulate our young star on his performance, it also denied him the opportunity to be generous and share his spoils with the other members of the staff.
Accordingly, we’d like to take a moment now and congratulate Evan on his public performance. We know he’s probably busy setting up his new equipment at home. It’s the place where he keeps his journals, magazines and academic periodicals that helped him prepare for the grueling match. Evan doesn’t need to share anything he doesn’t want to. We’ll respect his wishes. However, in lieu of sharing his winnings, we think it’s appropriate that he be available to answer the trivia questions from our readers. Please feel free to e-mail your esoteric trivia questions to: <evan@atpm.com>. Your questions need not be computer-related, just things about which you always wondered. Feel free to e-mail him again and again. It’s our way of sharing all our ATPM resources with our readers. Hee, hee, hee.
Speaking of trivia, take a peek for our new trivia section. Our friend Ed Goss will be providing us with cool questions from time to time. We hope it’ll take some of the heat off our computer columns. We don’t promise any prizes (at least not yet). The answers will be published in next month’s issue. By the way, who was the original voice of Betty Rubble, and in which two TV series did she appear as a regular? If we’re going to build a trivia column, we might as well start in…Bedrock (Sorry, we just had to say that).
Bored Of Directions
We think much of the reason for Apple’s latest imbroglio (we always wanted to use that word) is because of the many “new directions” announced by the company. We figure there has been a new direction declared about every four months or so. This can be very confusing, especially for those of us who write about Apple and try to make sense of things for other people. Now that the board of directors has some computer industry people (this does make sense, finally ) we think it’s time for the company to stop boring us with new directions. Let’s find a path and stick with it. Enough said.
TTFN (Ta Ta For Now)
But remember to pay close attention to CNN (or at least get a monthly subscription to ATPM) to stay on top of all the latest happenings in the world of Macintosh computing. About This Particular Macintosh (ATPM) was created to be a fun, monthly chronicle of the personal computing experience, written by and for everyday users of the world’s best personal computers—The Apple Macintosh and Mac OS clones. We take our job seriously and we appreciate your support!
